Thoughts on NG:DEV.team STGs

[bikingjahuty]

I am referring to Last Hope, Fast Striker, and Neo XYX here.

I don't see much mention of them on these boards and thought I'd see what people's opinions of them are.

Personally, I think Fast Striker is an great game, however visually it is a little bland and boring. I don't care much for Last Hope (Pink Bullets edition to be specific) due to poor design imo that makes it bullshit hard. Unfortunately I've missed the boat on Neo XYX, and have yet to pick it up or play it.

[HydrogLox]

I don't see much mention of them on these boards and thought I'd see what people's opinions of them are.

New Neo-Geo shmup -- Last Hope [also for DC]

Last Hope: Pink Bullets - DC

NeoGeo/Dreamcast/iPhone Shooter Fast Striker by NG:DEV Team

New NEOGEO / Dreamcast game: "NEO XYX" NG: DEV.TEAM 2013

Just these links contain 80+ pages of forum chatter since 2005.

[Sumez]

Don't forget
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50513

[Kollision]

Here's my take on the original version of Last Hope.

[BIL]

Also, the ultime classic

A serious note about Last Hope

OMAKE: DUX for Dreamcast

[Special World]

I have only played Dux and really did not care for it. Their other games look more my style, though.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Personally I love Fast Striker. There's usually enough going on in the stages for the looping backgrounds to not get tiresome. Original is a nice straightforward blast, with Maniac bringing higher difficulty and chaining score system. It's not really doing anything new and the rear shot is rarely necessary, but on the whole it's fun and hitting max rank is a good suicide bullet-fuelled jump scare!

Neo XYX suffers from uneven difficulty and a rigid chain system but is still a good enough ride (aided by its aesthetics).

Also, Gunlord is brilliant.

[Kollision]

I have only played Dux and really did not care for it. Their other games look more my style, though.

DUX was not made by NG DEV

[Tarma]

They're all garbage.

Homebrew rip-offs of games that did it better elsewhere dressed up as "legit" releases for defunct systems. I wouldn't piss on their stuff if it was on fire.

My two cents.

[HydrogLox]

DUX was not made by NG DEV

Seems people get easily confused just because René Hellwig (Hucast Games) sometimes contributes to NG:Dev.Team (Timm Hellwig) products - possibly imparting just a bit of the same (RHE) look and feel.

[gray117]

Not quite my thing. Really love they exist. Got to admire how they stick to their guns even if they may sometimes wind people up. But lets face it. You do anything neo-geo related and it's a hornets nest - that's all part of the fun.

Neo xyx was fine, even with some of the bugs (DC), but I'd be lying if I wasn't hoping for just something a bit more... plus a fixed iso or 2nd release would have been cool ... but it wasn't really a ng dev joint as much as other games as far as I understand (really a game from someone here that got finished and ported?), so enough was probably enough with that one.

I think the fan favorite of theirs is gunlord... but I never really got on super well with turrican types so the again some of the appeal is lost. Some great touches hidden away in that one one though ... one wonders what if only maybe they'd have ever taken something along a neo geo castlevania/magician lord route instead of doing something metal slug like.

I wanted to like Last Hope the most - that cover/poster art is still great - but I just don't get their choices.

If anything ng dev are probably part victim of how well they present their stuff/themselves - we look at them less like enthusiasts more like a full developer - and start to (not unfairly) expect a high standard from the product they put out... That being said could do with a bit less of the indie product with tits and arse promo art no matter how well it's done.

[Mortificator]

This is a timely thread, because I've been putting together the results of the most comprehensive research into NG:DEV.TEAM's games possible. Compiled from design documents, interviews, and behind-the-scenes accounts, the below display the totality of thought that went into their creation.

Last Hope complete creative process:

Spoiler

guys remember R-TYPE??

Gunlord complete creative process:

Spoiler

guys remember TURRICAN??

Neo XYX complete creative process:

Spoiler

guys remember TRUXTON??

Razion complete creative process:

Spoiler

guys remember PULSTAR??

Kraut Buster complete creative process:

Spoiler

guys remember METAL SLUG??

[Sumez]

Razion looks a lot more like Blazing Star

[SuperPang]

Gunlord is a decent console game. Neo XYX 1.3 I enjoy more than some Toaplan shmups (sue me) and Kraut Buster looks great, they're really getting to grips with pixel art. The rest I can take or leave.

Whether or not you're a fan, surely small dev teams supporting arcade hardware and pixel art deserve our support. They're few and far between.

But yes, a more original design is what's required next.

[Despatche]

Either we need to carefully outline the difference between NG Dev and Hucast, or we need to just make this a mega NG Dev/Hucast thread.

Also DUX was not actually made by Hucast as far as I can tell? Who is KTX/KonTechs, exactly?

[bikingjahuty]

I don't see much mention of them on these boards and thought I'd see what people's opinions of them are.

New Neo-Geo shmup -- Last Hope [also for DC]

Last Hope: Pink Bullets - DC

NeoGeo/Dreamcast/iPhone Shooter Fast Striker by NG:DEV Team

New NEOGEO / Dreamcast game: "NEO XYX" NG: DEV.TEAM 2013

Just these links contain 80+ pages of forum chatter since 2005.

Thought we could use one more

[HydrogLox]

we need to carefully outline the difference between NG Dev and Hucast.

• Hucast Games -> René Hellwig (RHE)
• NG:Dev.Team -> Timm Hellwig (THE). RHE sometimes contributes to NG:Dev.Team products. Rumor has it that some DUX series assets (Hucast) resurfaced in Razion (NG:Dev).

Also DUX was not actually made by Hucast as far as I can tell?

DUX is most definitely a product by René Hellwig (Hucast Games). Though Martin Konrad (Kontechs Ltd) seems to be mentioned as a contributor/co-developer.

Who is KTX/KonTechs, exactly?

KTX Software did the programming for Redux: Dark Matters - I presume under the lead of Hucast Games.

Homebrew rip-offs of games that did it better elsewhere dressed up as "legit" releases for defunct systems.

Hucast Games (in one form or another) has now moved beyond "defunct systems" with Redux: Dark Matters (Steam) and Ghost Blade HD (Steam, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U). Of course greater availability doesn't change perceived quality.

[Magma Dragoon]

They're good games for what they are, but definitely not worth the ridiculous prices they go for.

[BIL]

Either we need to carefully outline the difference between NG Dev and Hucast, or we need to just make this a mega NG Dev/Hucast thread.

I know right - the man RHE himself even specifies DUX is his side gig in my post's bonus content. :O

Here's René of NG:DEV.TEAM and I'd like to introduce my shmup side-project DUX.

It's a bit like your favourite band's guitarist doing a solo record. Different thing, similar qualities. ;3

[Jeneki]

NG Dev is on my "wait and see" list with their games. I won't preorder anything, but I will look into it later. I'm just not willing to risk getting stuck with major bugs on an unpatchable platform anymore.

If they start releasing games on something modern and easy to patch I'd have more confidence to buy early.

[Samuray]

As my avatar might suggest I'm a bit of a Neo Geo person (AES) but at first I really didn't care about NG DEVs efforts when I read about them in my gaming magazine of choice. The price was just too off-putting.
But man, did I change my tune.

It happened when they unveiled "Razion". When I watched that trailer, I fell in love. The style. The visuals. The music. Especially the music. I just HAD to have this.

So I bought it when it became available and my wife pretty much declared me crazy. I was close to having to cancel but then I sold some old item from our garage and got 400 bucks for it...yeah, that just had to be fate, right?

So I got "Razion" and it was every bit as awesome as expected. To this day it's one of my most beloved Neo Geo games. But now I became very interested in the others....

Last Hope: I was lucky and got a copy for a reasonable price, and....well, it's way roo hard for its own good. Graphics and music are interesting, sometimes even good, and it's been a lot of fun to grab a friend of mine and really tackle this one. We haven't finished it yet but we've come pretty far. It has the benefit of being their first title so I do appreciate it for what it is.

Last Hope: Pink Bullets: Never played it, not planning on ever buying the Neo cart. Said friend got the DC port and we will take a look at it once we've fought our way through LH proper. ^^
I'm sure the game benefits a great deal from better visibility and respawn, though.

Gunlord: Never played it, will buy the AES reprint this year.

Fast Striker: Neve played that either but although having avoided YouTube videos for spoiler reasons, I have listened to the first two tracks of the soundtrack and it's absolutely sublime. Truly amazing. Stage 1 music is pure goosebumps material for me. So yeah, very very much looking forward for the AES reprint later on.

I have all the HuCast games as well and they're really nice but they don't move me the same way the NG DEV ones do. They are recommended though.

[MommysBestGames]

Compiled from design documents, interviews, and behind-the-scenes accounts, the below display the totality of thought that went into their creation.

Haha... I got a good chuckle out of this.

I'm always a little let down by their games. They usually look pretty great. I think Gunlord made me the saddest since I really liked Turrican. I can't tell if that's changes in my tastes, or a mismatch in their design versus original Turrican. Maybe the Gunlord sprite/size was too big? I thought it felt too clunky, even moreso than Turrican. Could also just be my tastes changing and skills are getting lazy. The art looked so good in that game though.

[Ghegs]

NG Dev is on my "wait and see" list with their games. I won't preorder anything, but I will look into it later. I'm just not willing to risk getting stuck with major bugs on an unpatchable platform anymore.

If they start releasing games on something modern and easy to patch I'd have more confidence to buy early.

The MVS carts can be patched easily enough, you just need a computer and a USB-to-Mini USB -cable. As I understand it, it's then been the latest MVS versions that have been ported to DC and released on AES.

Gunlord is pretty good, but I think it kind of fizzles out in the end, and is a bit too easy. When I finally sat down and started playing it seriously, I 1CCed the game in short order. The later stages also aren't as expansive and interesting as the early ones.

I want to like LH:PB because I love R-Type, but the pre-rendered graphics almost kill it for me. When I think of the lovely sprites in Gunlord's shmup stages and how they could've been in LH:PB...damn.

[Cee]

They're all garbage.

Homebrew rip-offs of games that did it better elsewhere dressed up as "legit" releases for defunct systems. I wouldn't piss on their stuff if it was on fire.

My two cents.

Basically this, the majority of the catalogue is essentially do you want piss on toast or shit on chips?

[MintyTheCat]

They're all garbage.

Homebrew rip-offs of games that did it better elsewhere dressed up as "legit" releases for defunct systems. I wouldn't piss on their stuff if it was on fire.

My two cents.

Basically this, the majority of the catalogue is essentially do you want piss on toast or shit on chips?

At a push I'd have to opt for the proverbial "piss on toast", plus, mouth wash is cheaper and I rarely eat fast food

[eckart]

I heard they have a new arcade hardware around the corner.
SD card based if i remember correctly.
Hopefully they ad a deleveloper kit to that system. -Would love to design a 2d shooter.

[nem]

Kraut Buster is being released as a regular jamma board next year. I suspect that's the first game on it.

[eckart]

Yes, that would make sense.
Hope the system/games are not too expensive.

[seraph]

I'm a huge fan of Cho Ren Sha 68K. :)

[Austin]

I have only played the DC ports NG:DEV did, and Last Hope was my favorite of the shmups. It felt like a love letter to games like Pulstar and R-Type. It has some issues no doubt, but it comes off as something that should have existed on the Neo-Geo in the mid-'90s.

Fast Striker seemed like a major case of style over substance. Maybe there was a lot there to the scoring system, but nothing else about the game grabbed me so I couldn't really be bothered to care.

With Neo XYX, I recall the fast screen scrolling to be a nuisance and it really hurt the game's pacing for me. There are a lot of other little aesthetic issues that took me out of the experience. It was still fun and I did enjoy it, but the Dreamcast version I bought was bugged to hell and I just gave up on playing it after a while.